Gauche

Pronunciation

• RP IPA: /ɡəʊʃ/
• US IPA: /gowʃ/
• Rhymes: -əʊʃ

Origin

Borrowing from fr {{2}} gauche ("left, awkward"), from gauchir ("to veer, turn"), from Old French gaucher ("to trample, walk clumsily"), from Frankish welkan ("to full, trample"), from Proto-Germanic *welk- ("to full, roll up"). Akin to Old High German walchan ("to knead"), Old English wealcian ("to roll up, curl"), Old Norse valka ("to drag about"). More at walk.

Full definition of gauche

Adjective

1. Awkward or lacking in social graces; bumbling.
• unknown date "Seeking by vulgar pomp and gauche display" — Samuel Griswold (1793-1860)
• 1879, George Meredith, The Egoist,She looked a trifle gauche, it struck me; more like a country girl with the hoyden taming in her than the well-bred creature she is.
2. (mathematics, archaic) Skewed, not plane.
3. (chemistry) Describing a torsion angle of 60°

Synonyms

• (lacking in social graces) graceless, tactless, unsophisticated, unpolished, gawky

Antonyms

• (lacking in social graces) adroit

Anagrams

• guache